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The most powerful marketing content today, the content you should be striving to create, is the stuff that creates the right discussions in the right context among the right people.

If your content is all about your company, your brand and your products, you’re missing the point of what makes today’s marketing content more effective and memorable.  In other words, you’re not getting what you’re paying for.  If your outreach is basically driven by cultivating a few opinion leaders and staying in control of your message, you’re not making the most of the new landscape and the new tools available to you.  Worse, you’re likely losing ground to competitors who are.

To Bob Duffy, senior social-media strategist at Intel, it’s not about controlling the message so much as providing the context in which information is exchanged and interpreted.

Duffy told Social Media Explorer that brands, not unlike Intel, are doing a lot of what the traditional media (and industry analysts) have always done: publishing what they learn from developers, for example, revealing best practices and creating connections between different tech players. Like his counterparts at other technology brands today, Duffy is creating the context for important discussions in the industry that will ultimately pay off down the road for his employer.

The takeaway for today’s marketing pros? Reach out to anyone who could be part of your community and jump-start the discussions you want to be part of.  Discussions to which you can add value and build your reputation as somebody who’s worth engaging on a long-term basis.  Just keep in mind that you have to stick to the subject matter of the discussion and not be a shill for your brand.  Your community is street-wise.  It is more than capable of connecting the dots. Do as Duffy does: “We don’t try to control the conversation or message, we just want to provide the context.”

What are you doing as a marketer to instigate industry discussions and engage your communities?  What are you learning from, and sharing with, the people who matter to your brand?  What kinds of connections are you creating among them?  How are you measuring it?

Tom Pisello’s thoughts on content marketing and the “buyer’s journey” reminds us, again, that great customer knowledge is the cornerstone of great content for customers. Great content marketing, in other words.

There’s a specific category of content for suspects and prospects that call for careful sorting of the content to present to each at various points along their decision path.  It may not necessarily accelerate the buyer’s journey from kicking the tires to writing the check, but it ensures a better ROI for each individual piece of content. What you make available to each group can effectively nudge them along their way.

In a world where skepticism and frugality reign supreme, knowing which stage your prospect is in will determine whether your carefully crafted content is useful or irrelevant. It can make the difference between material the prospect considers valuable or useless.  As with most things in life, timing is everything.  Note that there is always overlap in groups such as those described below, but Pisello’s rule-of-thumb still applies:

1. Think of the first stage of the journey as the discovery period.  Here, buyers are in fact-gathering mode.  They may have made the decision to purchase something, but not necessarily your thing.  This is the group to which white papers, webcasts, events and diagnostic assessment tools are most useful.

2. In the consideration stage, the buyer is looking to justify the purchase.  This is the decision-making time when specific vendors are put on a short list and their offerings more closely scrutinized and screened.  In this phase the prospect (no longer a “suspect”) may be particularly influenced by your solution case studies, video testimonials and white papers that are less theoretical and more solution-minded.

3. Finally, it’s decision time when the buyer will be most influenced by content that demonstrates the rightness of your value proposition.  They want a compelling answer to the question, “Why is this the right decision for me?”  Any content that reveals ROI will be most appropriate at this stage: interactive business-case tools, feature-function comparisons, value-oriented white papers and total-cost-of-ownership comparison tools.

There are horses for courses.  And there is specific content for specific mindsets.  Do you have compelling marketing content that fits each phase of the buyer’s decision process?  How are you measuring its ROI?

We’re in violent agreement with the folks over at Beaupre bemoaning the dearth of dedicated content specialists (AKA writers and editors) among the ranks of so many PR firms.

To be clear, we at Write Angle have no ax to grind whatsoever when it comes to public-relations agencies.  Quite the contrary.  Some of us are former agency operatives, one even having spent decades in Silicon Valley on the client-side retaining the best in the business at places such as Apple and NetApp.  So we know, too, that great media-relations, the primary assignment of technology PR, is not the same thing as great writing.  Most firms, large or small, simply cannot afford to keep a separate stable of great writers.

Agencies earn their keep by their skills as interpreters and as relationship cultivators.  They’re paid to translate complicated concepts and information into irresistible ideas — nuggets of topical interest to the right reporters, bloggers and influencers with whom they have personal familiarity and cordial working relationships.  People who are adept at this aren’t necessarily as effective at long-form translation or turning these ideas into the lengthier prose that make prosaic media backgrounders, whitepapers and op-ed articles vivid, compelling reading. The problems crop up when the volume of work outstrips — or falls short of — the resources at hand.

The fact is that in hectic periods of “feast” the demand for press releases and web pages and content of all kinds can overwhelm a lean shop.  The other side of that coin are the leaner times when agencies, including those with no dedicated writers on staff, find themselves in the unhappy position of having to support idle overhead.  No matter what, clients will always expect quality deliverables on time and on budget at all times. The solution: dedicated, on-demand, outside writers whom the beleaguered agency would be proud to call its own. It turns out that such a service is just what the budget calls for in more ways than one, during times of feast or famine.

By now, the importance of creating your own content and publishing it online via all social channels should be pretty obvious, but in case you missed the latest metric on social-media marketing here it is: HubSpot just reported that nearly two out of every three social-media messages today is a link to published content.

In other words, people pointing out to personal friends and business associates the material published by someone else amounts to a substantial majority of the information flow in social media.  The implications for marketers have never been clearer or more urgent: brands, whether B2C or B2B, are as much in the content publishing (and distribution) business today as they are in the business that generates their revenue stream.  Indeed, the publishing element of their business has become central to growing this revenue because it drives the visitors to your site who generate the leads that convert to $ales.

Moreover, whether people are sharing links to your content or embedding it into social networks directly, an overwhelming 96% of the sharing that happens online is of content, not websites.  The take-away: creating fresh content that encourages sharing  amongst your prospects, customers, partners and market influencers, specifically the stuff that addresses issues of keenest interest and urgency to them, multiplies their interest in you.  You’re in the conversation, which is the precursor to being in consideration.

Superior marketers have come to understand that pushing content drives in-bound marketing.  Fresh content — the more frequently published the better — facilitates online “find-ability”.  It’s  not enough to update your site once a quarter and step back to await the deluge of visitors clicking through your multiple calls-to-action.  Plant your content seeds in social media and get it shared among the right people on an ongoing basis.

What is your content strategy today?  What are your content publishing tactics?  How often do you publish the content your prospects and customers can’t resist sharing?

In his book “Corner Office”, the New York Times’ Adam Bryant interviews a bunch of CEOs and describes how they got their jobs. One of the traits of a good CEO, he says, is understanding human psychology. Specifically, CEOs who do the best jobs are the ones able to mold stars into teams. First, you have to spot the difference between a star player and team player. Then you ensure that the stars are willing and able to put the team first. The ones who can’t must go.

These team dynamics apply to writing projects, too, especially the bigger ones that cross functional lines. Creating remarkable content for successful marketing and selling involves talented individuals, “stars”, working as a team. In the end, a superior creative product emerges not by committee but by collaboration. It’s tricky to negotiate the fine line that separates the two but this is precisely what needs to happen.

The best marketing content gains and holds attention then compels some form of action by the reader. So an effective piece of content is not unlike a powerful speech. Just as a good presenter visualizes talking to a single individual instead of roomful of them, talented writers imagine they are creating a message, a letter to someone they know, vividly describing something of specific interest to that reader and asking for a response. The typical problem with marketing content is its “committee” feel. Trying to speak to everyone, it addresses no one. How does your team overcome committee-speak? How do you encourage content creation that is collaborative?

Start-up companies are not alone in making the missteps we continually see from folks who run marketing and sales today. Too often, established brands fall into the same avoidable traps. The caveats as we see them:

1. Most conspicuous is the knee-jerk tendency to putting the 20-somethings in charge of social-media marketing strategy and tactics. “Hey, they’re the digital natives, they eat and breathe Facebook and Foursquare, let THEM drive this!” sounds like an epitaph on a departmental gravestone. Rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t put total greenhorns (read: an intern) in charge of sales support or customer service, do not anoint them keepers of in-bound marketing. It’s far too elemental to the revenue line and becoming more central all the time. Make the youngsters part of the team, not the captain.

2. Obsessing on competitors to the point of aping their every move. This isn’t competitive analysis it’s competitor envy. If every time someone sends you an “FYI” describing a piece of content created by a competitor you stop what you’re doing to automatically follow suit, your company is being led by that competitor’s tactics, not your own content strategy. Monitor competitive material closely, of course, but appraise it through the prism of your own objectives and customer requirements. What are the current needs and expectations of your own users? Where do you believe your market is headed? What is most central to your content strategy? The answers to these questions will best advance your mission.

3. Asking “how high?” every time an investor screams “Jump!” Satisfied customers make satisfied shareholders. Resist the temptation to force-fit every idea or suggestion put on the table by board members and investors. Acknowledge their interest with a customer-driven response but never forget that they are advisors, not cue cards.

Props to the academics at Edit911, the guys who were instrumental in editing our book a few years years ago, for inspiring today’s post. You can read the full Monty here. Below, our expurgated version.

I. Use shorter sentences. Your readers will not only thank you, they’ll be much more likely to read you.

II. Read it aloud. If it doesn’t sound right, it’s wrong. If it sounds good, it reads well.

III. Give it to someone else to read. Preferably someone known for their candor. This is the essence of test-marketing.

IV. Outline your thoughts. This ensures a beginning, a middle and an end. It also guards against repetition and rambling.

V. In lengthier pieces, use subheads. Another way to ensure that you follow your outline.

VI. Make your main idea your compass or “true north”. If you need reminding, put it on the corner of each page as you write.

VII. Think of possible objections. If you’ve ever taken a class in debate, this is like the exercise of arguing both sides of an issue. Anticipating objections enable you to build in persuasive counter-arguments. You want your opinion to make a difference in someone’s thinking, not just make your point.

VIII. Know your audience. Never stop asking and reminding yourself exactly who your readers are as you write to them.

IX. Use spell check and grammar check. They are heavenly tools.

X. If there is one thing worse than underestimating (insulting) your reader’s intelligence, it’s overestimating their knowledge of your subject. It’s no coincidence that the best writing happens to be the clearest and simplest.

Case studies work. They sell. They drive people to your site. They enable you to be found online. They create interest, qualify leads, refresh content, build brand, and drive down the cost of sales.

There’s a catch, however: There are case studies and then there are self-serving, self-congratulatory loads of dreck that masquerade as “case studies”. What distinguishes the former from the latter? Clear descriptions of three things:

1. The most valuable benefit of the product or service being featured. This assumes that you understand what it is about the product that would arouse the attention (read: make somebody reach for their checkbook) of a user/customer/consumer. In other words, you know what your target customer holds dear. What they value most.

2. What it took the user in the case to adopt your product. What did he have to unplug? Undo? Buy extra? Learn? Re-learn? What was your product’s (or service’s) adoption cost?

3. The price. At very least, some order of magnitude of what your stuff costs relative to alternatives.

Those three elements constitute your value proposition. A value proposition is not an elevator pitch. It’s a quantifiable entity. And any case study that doesn’t communicate it is not worth the pixels on the screen. Your value prop is compelling only to the extent that the size of #1 (above) exceeds the sum of #2 plus #3.

Note: we understand the sensitivity of putting price information into case studies given the realities of negotiation. Just never lose sight of the fact that price is central to the customer’s definition of a value proposition. And this is only definition that counts.

Brian Solis thinks deep thoughts about the way people find and consume content today. Any and all content.

We can’t point to any companies hiring, in his words, the “new CEOs–chief editorial officers…journalists, editors, and freelancers (that) transform (company) media-rooms and blogs into veritable newsrooms”.

But, hey, if it generates leads, grows revenue and cuts the cost of selling we’re all for it.

Your company may not be looking for a chief editorial officer just yet but you don’t really need one to create the kind of content that draws the right audience, creates the right impression about your offerings and, above all, compels the right action by the people you want to act. Just remember the basic ingredients: what it is that makes one company’s material superior to others’ in the eyes and minds of buyers. Superior, or so-called “remarkable” content, contains four basic qualities:

1. It’s relevant. It delivers immediate gratification. Here’s where and why you really need to know your audience, users, and prospects because you must anticipate their desires, needs and interests. What do they have a burning interest to know? What do THEY NEED to know about your solution? This is all about what they want to know, not what you want to tell them. All that matters is what they are trying to find out. It’s on you to know what this is.

2. It’s unique. At least it’s unique to you and your brand. This means your voice, your take, your analysis and your interpretations that are uniquely your own. (Simple example: quotes in a press release should be written as if you’re being quoted in a face-to-face conversation with a customer, not like a letter from one lawyer to another. This is what is meant by authenticity.) Think of this attribute as the opposite of a “me, too” product feature. Why should someone care about (read) your stuff if they can get the same stuff just about anywhere else? Hint: if they can, they will. This is self-defeating, to put it politely.

3. It’s appealing. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing in way that reflects professionalism and expertise. Yours! Typography, videography, photographic quality, etc., must be redolent of high-production value. If it has your name on it, you want it packaged accordingly. It’s no coincidence that sticky content is content elegantly presented.

4. It’s engaging. We’re talking language here. The use of words. Just as most of us tend to skip disclaimers, legalese, terms-and-conditions and package-inserts, passive writing is the written equivalent of tryptophan. Engage the reader the way you wish to be engaged: with vivid word pictures that make the topic come alive with real-life anecdotes to substantiate your claim that you understand their world because you live there, too. Never forget that your readers will judge your products and services through your content.

Google just made a rare post to their Webmaster Central Blog. You can check it out here.

And, to ensure that the quality of everything you publish would pass Google muster as described above, here are some observations of our own:

What makes one piece of content superior to another today, especially when it comes to getting found online? According to Google, it’s nothing more or less than the quality that compels a reader to bookmark it, share it or recommend it. This means that social signals come into play to a great degree, as in social media.

Here are the questions you need to ask about everything you present to customers and prospects to ensure that your offerings are not only easy to find, but presented in the right context and contain the earmarks of authority they deserve. Note that this is what we at WriteAngle do routinely on your behalf:

1. What makes the information you’re presenting trustworthy and why would a reader recognize it as such?

2. What makes you confident that the material reflects expertise in the subject matter? Put another way, why are you confident that it would not be dismissed as shallow or thinly-veiled promotional fluff?

3. Again, in the case of website content, would you be comfortable sharing confidential information (contact, credit card, etc.)?

4. Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?

5. What have you done to differentiate your content from that associated with “content farms” (e.g., are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines)?

6. Does the material provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?

7. Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

8. Why do you assume your existing customers would feel compelled to share it with their peers and associates?

These questions are our interpretations of the points Google raises in its post. We point them out because they substantiate and reaffirm our insistence that your content be well-written and obtainable exclusively from you. Your content must be your content.

Note also that Google intends to make hundreds of search-engine improvements in 2011 — more reasons to plan for identifiers that make your content unique and high-quality. These should include social-sharing buttons to prompt users to pass it along.